by TChris

More than two years behind schedule and $120 million over budget, the FBI hopes to finish modernizing its computer system by this summer. Will it all have been worth it?

The upgrade, known as Trilogy, is intended to move the FBI from decades of dependence on paper to the digital age. But congressional investigators and some lawmakers question whether the bureau can even run the new system.

The total cost will be about $600 million, not counting another $20 million that the Bureau wants so that its agents can read classified emails. Let's hope that $20 million is sufficient to keep high school hackers from busting into the system and publishing the classified information on the internet.

The General Accounting Office questions whether the FBI has an "overall vision that provides a guide for moving from current computer needs to those of the future."

Although the FBI is working on such a plan, the GAO said the entire system could be at risk of duplication, overlap and lack of integration. The GAO concluded that the FBI faces "a major challenge" in overcoming these obstacles.